Story # 1: The Apartments

I don't remember how old I was, but I was a teenager, probably away from the Lord. It was June, and I was in West Virginia for a month visiting relatives.

I was over at my cousins' house, they live in apartments, and I don't know whose idea it was--mine or my cousin's. I'm talking about my cousin Sam here, he's four years younger than me, and he went to be with the Lord when he was 17--cancer got him.

But one of us got this wild idea to shut everybody's power off in his complex. The breakers for each building were in the laundry rooms (why they were designed like that, don't ask me). So we ran, as fast as we could, into each laundry room and threw the breakers. And then ran as fast as we could to the next one. And so on, until we turned off the lights in every building. By the time we got done with all of them, we heard a lot of yelling behind us. We didn't look back, but ran up the hill into the woods and hid out there for a long while.

We were laughing so hard the whole time it was hard to breathe.


Sammy, we love you. And we miss you. Pray for us, my brother. See you when I get there.


Confession is good for the soul,
fr francis